Beiping County, Lulong.

Linyu Palace.

The emperor left Zhuo County in February, arrived in Lulong, Beiping in early March, and summoned the Eastern Expedition Wenwu at the Linyu Palace to hold a pre-imperial meeting.

Linyu Palace is a palace built by the emperor for the Liao expedition, this palace is not very luxurious, but it is extremely strong, this is actually a castle full of the nature of a military fortress, called the palace, and in fact, the city defense is strong, and a large number of grain and grass equipment are accumulated.

After the Linyu Palace was built, the imperial court set up Linyu County in the Linyu Palace, and moved the original Yuguan to the southeast, established the Linyu Pass in front of the Linyu Palace, and set up the Linyu Military Town.

The main hall of the palace.

All the civil and military officials stood in shifts.

Emperor Yang Guang was in good spirits today, sitting on the dragon chair with a smile on his eyebrows.

"Ladies and gentlemen, be even."

"Your Majesty, Minister Duan Wenzhen has something to do!"

Yang Guang saw that it was the right Guanglu doctor, the left Wuhou general, and Duan Wenzhen, the secretary of the military department, so he said, "Aiqing has something to say." "Duan Wenzhen is regarded as the emperor's military strategist of the expedition to Liao, Yang Guangdong's expedition to Goguryeo, although there was a plan, but the real decision to go east is still two people, one is Yinqing Guanglu doctor Pei Shiju, and the other is Duan Wenzhen, the secretary of the military department.

Pei Shiju has always been trusted and relied on by Yang Guang and is the formulator of Yang Guang's foreign strategy. The conquest of Goguryeo is Pei Shiju's advance. As for how to conquer Goguryeo, the formulation of its military plan was Duan Wenzhen.

"Your Majesty, Liaodong sent back the good news the previous time, and Luo Cheng, the vanguard general of Liaozuo, played the good news again, following the capture of the two cities of Xuansu and Cangyan, and then captured the South Soviet City. General Luo has already won seven battles and seven victories, completely gaining a foothold in Liaodong, and the thieves in the Xincheng area who killed him were terrified, and he did not dare to come out of the cities. ”

Yang Guang laughed and said, "What Duan Qing said is very true, the Marquis of Xiangyang is really beyond my expectations, when I took him as a pioneer, I never thought that he would be able to make such a great achievement. Seven battles and seven victories, capturing three cities in a row, annihilating the enemy and capturing more than 16,000 people, can be called a success. ”

"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Xiangyang is indeed unexpected, and because of this, the minister thinks it is necessary to adjust the previous battle plan." Duan Wen Zhen said.

"Oh, how does Duan Qing think it should be adjusted?"

Duan Wenqing played, "The original plan was that the 24th Army would go out first and arrive in Huaiyuan Town in March. The Sixth Army of the Imperial Camp went out and arrived in Huaiyuan in April, but now it seems that the spring march is still delayed, and the first nine armies can only reach Huaiyuan at the end of April at the earliest, and the other armies have to be even later. In order not to affect the summer offensive, the ministers thought that the armies could be readjusted. ”

As he spoke, Duan Wenzhen handed over a notebook.

Yang Guang asked the chamberlain to fetch it.

Opening it to take a closer look, Yang Guang nodded.

"There does make some sense."

The original plan was to send 12 armies on the left and right wings, then the six armies of the imperial camp, and then the armies of the Donglai waterway, and each army was equipped with a huge number of baggage chariots, stragglers and people, and the army would reach more than one million, and one army would be sent a day, and the army would be mighty.

However, the current situation is that the assembly from Zhuojun to Huaiyuan Town of Liaohe River is difficult, but the march is difficult and slow, especially the large number of baggage soldiers and civilians carried seriously affects the speed of the march.

On the other hand, the vanguard army, which was originally only a partial division, was mighty after crossing the river, and actually won successive battles, attacked the city and broke the pool, and beheaded the generals to capture the flag, which couldn't help but make Duan Wenzhen, the secretary of the military department, think about whether the previous plan was too conservative.

If a vanguard army can fight the Goguryeo people so restrained, then why bother to send a million troops.

Therefore, Duan Wenzhen's new plan was to reorganize the armies and reduce the number of the Eastern Expeditionary Army.

In the new plan, the number of the Eastern Expeditionary Army was reduced to 30 armies, consisting of 24 armies on the left and right flanks, plus 6 armies in the imperial camp.

These 30 armies will be divided into three offensive groups.

The Pyongyang Naval Group was divided into eight armies, with the second, third, and tenth armies of the left army and the second, fourth, sixth, tenth, and eleventh armies of the right army all given to the soldiers and horses assembled in Dongnae County, and they were organized into the Eighth Army by sea.

The commander of the eight armies of the sea route is Rong Guogong and the general of Youyiwei to protect his son, and the deputy general is Zhou Fashang, the former general of Nanchen who is proficient in water warfare.

Of the 16 remaining armies of the 24th Army, all of them were land forces.

Duan Wenzhen divided these 16 armies into two groups, six of which were aimed at Pyongyang, and these six armies were the 1st, 11th, and 12th armies on the left flank and the 1st, 3rd, and 9th armies on the right flank.

The other ten armies remained.

The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th armies on the left flank, and the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 12th armies on the right flank, these ten armies, aimed between the Liao River and the Yalu River. Their goal was to attack Liaodong and take control of this area before the Sixth Army of the Imperial Camp crossed the river.

Solve the worries of the six armies that went to Pyongyang earlier.

As for the emperor's imperial camp of the Sixth Army, the combat mission was to protect the emperor and the accompanying civil and military forces, and to act as a strategic general reserve.

"Your Majesty, the original army was composed of 12,000 soldiers, 8,000 auxiliaries, and 20,000 soldiers in one army. The new plan was to increase the number of troops to 35,000 to 40,000 per army. ”

Originally, after the 24th Army, there were still many armies, but now Duan Wenzhen went down with a knife and compressed them all into thirty armies. An army of 30,000 to 40,000, and 30 armies can also reach more than 1.1 million.

The increase in the number of troops in each army, but the decrease in the total number of troops, is also to make it easier for unified mobilization and combat after entering Liao.

"What do you think?" Yang Guang asked.

The general of the left guard, Yuwen Shu, was listed.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks this plan is good, but if the cities of Liaodong are not broken, it is still very risky to let the Sixth Army go straight to Pyongyang. After all, the distance from the Liao River to Pyongyang is extremely far, and the cities in the rear have not been supplied, so they can only carry grain and grass with the army. Even if an army carries 100 days' rations, there is still a risk of running out of food at any time. ”

"Then Aiqing thinks this plan can't work?" Yang Guang asked Yu Wenshu.

"The minister thinks that this plan of the Duan Military Department is very good, that is, the Sixth Army in Pyongyang should be strengthened, and the Sixth Army can be changed to the Ninth Army, so that there are at least 300,000 troops, so that such a large army, carrying a hundred days of grain and grass, will kill all the way to Pyongyang, and the Goguryeo people in the cities of Liaodong will not dare to stop it along the way, and if they go to war, they will defeat it."

Duan Wenzhen planned to send out six armies, with about 200,000 soldiers. And Yuwenshu said that he would send out the Ninth Army, with at least 300,000 soldiers and horses.

"Your Majesty, the soldiers are not expensive, if the Ninth Army is sent, there will be too many soldiers, and it will not be beneficial." Duan Wenzhen still felt that the Sixth Army was enough.

After all, he believes that there are still eight armies in the Navy, and these eight armies are only Marine Corps, and the JAC sailors and crews are not counted among them.

After passing six armies from Liaodong and eight armies from the sea, then after converging under the city of Pyongyang, it can reach 14 armies, with a total strength of more than 30,000 and a total strength of more than 500,000.

"The minister thinks that the Sixth Army is sufficient, and the minister also recommended the left vanguard general Xiangyang Hou Luo to become the general of the First Army." Duan Wenzhen said again.